OLIVE FAMILY 189 
DIOSPYROS L. 
Flowers dicecious or somewhat moncecious, the staminate 
ones in cymes, the pistillate ones axillary and solitary. Calyx 
4-6-lobed. Corolla 4—6-lobed. Stamens in the staminate flowers 
usually 16, in the pistillate ones 8, imperfect. Fruit large, 
with the persistent calyx attached to its base, 4—8-seeded. 
1. D. virginiana L. Persimmon. Trees, with rough, black bark, and 
very hard wood. Leaves oval or ovate-oblong, acute or acuminate 
at the apex, rounded or slightly cordate at the base, entire and dark 
green, smooth above, pale and often downy beneath, short-petioled, 
deciduous. Flowers yellowish-white, the parts mostly in fours. Fruit 
globose, edible when ripe, very astringent when green; seeds large, 
compressed, often wanting. Fruit ripening late in the fall. Common 
in old fields and along roadsides S. and S.W.* 
79. OLEACEZ. O.ive Famity 
Shrubs or trees. Leaves opposite, simple or odd-pinnate, 
without stipules. Flowers usually in forking cymes, small, 
white, greenish or yellow, bisexual or unisexual. Calyx free 
from the ovary, 4-lobed or wanting. Corolla hypogynous, regu- 
lar, 4-parted or of 4 separate petals, sometimes wanting. Sta- 
mens 2, borné on the petals or hypogynous. Ovary 2-celled. 
Fruit 1-2-celled, each cell 1-seeded, rarely 2-seeded (in For- 
sythia many-seeded). : 
I. FRAXINUS Tourn. 
Deciduous trees. Flowers dicecious. Petals wanting (in our 
species). Stamens 2, hypogynous. Fruit a 1—2-celled key, each 
cell 1-seeded. a 
1. F. americana L. Wuite Asu. A large tree; bark rough, gray; 
wood hard, strong, elastic; twigs and petioles smooth. Leaflets usu- 
ally 7, ovate to .ovate-lanceolate, taper-pointed at the apex, rounded 
‘or obtuse at the base, entire or. slightly serrate, smooth above, often 
downy beneath, short-stalked. Flowers mostly dicecious. Calyx of the 
pistillate flowers persistent. Key 14-2 in. long, winged only at the 
apex;' wing spatulate or oblanceolate. In rich woods and swamps.* 
2. F. pennsylvanica Marsh. Rep Asu. A small tree; bark rough, 
dark gray; twigs and petioles densely velvety-downy. Leaflets 5-9, 
oblong-ovate to ovate-lanceolate, taper-pointed at the apex, narrowed. 
